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Chronic Stress Makes Food Make You Fatter

New research out of UC San Francisco is the first to demonstrate that highly stressed people who eat a lot of high-fat, high-sugar food are more prone to health risks than low-stress people who eat the same amount of unhealthy food.

“Chronic stress can play an important role in influencing biology, and it’s critical to understand the exact pathways through which it works.” said Kirstin Aschbacher, PhD, an assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and lead author.

“Many people think a calorie is a calorie, but this study suggests that two women who eat the same thing could have different metabolic responses based on their level of stress,” Aschbacher said. “There appears to be a stress pathway that works through diet – for example, it could be similar to what we see in animals, where fat cells grow faster in response to junk food when the body is chronically stressed.”

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of abnormalities – increased blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels – that occur together, increasing a person’s risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

While this stress-junk food pathway has been well mapped out with rodents and primates, this study is the first to suggest the same pathways may be at work in chronically stressed humans, according to the researchers.

“We can see this relationship exists by simply measuring stress and dietary intake, and looking inside at metabolic health,” said senior author Elissa Epel, PhD. “Diet appears to be a critical variable that can either amplify or protect against the metabolic effects of stress, but we still don’t know the details of how much it takes. It will be helpful to see what happens in our next study, when we have high stress people eat a high sugar diet for a couple weeks.”

Examining a Stress-Related Biomarker in Women

The study, published online in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, looked at a group of 61 disease-free women; 33 were chronically stressed women caring for a spouse or parent with dementia, and 28 were women with low stress.

Over the course of a year, the women reported their consumption of high sugar, high fat foods.

The researchers evaluated key biological markers associated with elevated metabolic risk. They measured participants’ waistlines and their fat distribution, using ultrasound scans to assess deep abdominal fat deposits. They tested participants’ insulin resistance, one of the core drivers of obesity and diabetes.

They also used a blood test to measure stress hormones and oxidative damage to lipids and cell RNA, a marker that has predicted higher rates of death from diabetes. Oxidative damage of the genome is also an important outcome because it is one factor that can contribute to faster cellular aging.

“We found that more frequent high-fat, high-sugar consumption significantly predicted a larger waistline, more truncal fat, higher oxidative damage, and more insulin resistance, but only among the group of women exposed to chronic stress,” said Aschbacher. “The chronically stressed women didn’t report eating more high sugar, high fat foods than the low stressed women; however, they did have higher levels of a stress-related biomarker, peripheral Neuropeptide Y (NPY).”

The Role of Chronic Stress in Disease Processes

Based on what is known from animal studies, stress triggers greater peripheral NPY which, in combination with junk food, creates larger abdominal fat cells, and these cells may be more prone to metabolic dysregulation.

“The medical community is starting to appreciate how important chronic stress is in promoting and worsening early disease processes,” said Aschbacher. “But there are no guidelines for ‘treating’ chronic stress.  We need treatment studies to understand whether increasing stress resilience could reduce the metabolic syndrome, obesity or diabetes.”




The material in this press release comes from the originating research organization. Content may be edited for style and length. Want more? Sign up for our daily email.

65 thoughts on “Chronic Stress Makes Food Make You Fatter”

  1. It makes sense, because many people; especially women; find comfort in junk food when they are stressed, but these great amounts of stress is caused by modern time. Modern life is filled with stress caused by the demands of modern time. That is the big problem, it is almost as if life has become a race.

  2. This is an very interesting article and definitely makes you stop and think about your own eating habits. I definitely find that I also eat more unhealthy in times of stress. Like for instance in exam times I snack more. We should try to replace those calories with healthier options that benefit our bodies. This can also give us more energy which can help us cope with our stress better.

  3. This is an incredibly interesting study that was made , this just shows what big of an effect stress can have on the human body and your every day life. Controlling your stress levels are very important , because it doesn’t only have an influence on your mind and lifestyle but also a huge effect on your body itself. A study was also made that people with high stress levels tend to eat more especially high sugar based foods , because they find comfort in the food.

    I can see in my exam times or heavy stressed times if I have lots of work I tend to eat more , because you find a feel good hormone in the food you eat , thus it is very important to manage the stress you have in your life by exercising , breaking away for a bit , yoga etc. Anything that works for you.

  4. I found this article to be extremely informative. Being a person who stresses a lot, I have noticed that although I exercise it is hard for me to lose weight. I now know that I need to first reduce my stress levels before I can be successful in losing weight. However, this may be difficult because as it is said in the article, there are no guidelines to reducing chronic stress.

  5. Managing stress is not easy. There are various methods used to manage stress. Stress affects us in different ways, for some people food is the only thing that seems to ease the pain. I strongly agree with the contents of this article. There is a stage whereby you don’t realize that you are actually eating more food than you anticipated. Stress can make your life complicated, you tend to forget easily, you suddenly become absent minded. Eating unhealthy food when feeling depressed is common for quite a number of women around the world.

  6. Managing stress is not an easy.There are various methods used to manage stress. Stress affects us in different ways,for some people food is the only thing that seems to ease the pain.I strongly agree with the contents of this article.There is a stage whereby you don’t realize that you are actually eating more food than you anticipated.Stress can make your life complicated,you tend to forget easily,you suddenly become absent minded.Eating unhealthy food when feeling depressed is common for quite a number of women.

  7. I suppose this is another reason why we should really learn to manage stress in our lives because stress in inevitable. Majority of the times high levels of stress do have bad outcomes and our health is always the number one target.

  8. This is an extremely informative passage. Statistics also reveal that the more stressed a person is the more prone that person in gaining belly fat which puts that person on cardiovascular disease risk. When a person is stressed they release the hormone cortisol which maintains blood pressure and regulates the body’s use of macronutrients. There are daily activities that can reduce the amount of cortisol such as; sufficient exercise, sufficient sleep, scheduled relaxation, and a decrease in the consumption of caffeine.

    It would be an interesting study to see the links between blood type and cortisol levels. According to Dr J’adamo blood type A’s are more prone to higher cortisol levels and therefore are more prone to gaining weight. Dr J’adamo also suggests that blood type A’s should do less strenuous exercise and more relaxed or meditative type exercise, such as yoga. This could influence how people construct exercise plans.

  9. Reading this piece about stress levels and the effect it has on weight gain made a bunch of light bulbs go on in my mind. I am an extremely stressed person and very prone to gaining weight and not losing it again. It seemed like the more I am worried about my weight, the less I am losing! It is now that I am realizing that getting stressed about it actually made it worse. This also explains why my roommate, who is the same age and body type, who eats and exercise the same amount as I do, seems to lose weight easier and keep a constant weight than me. She is a more happy-go-lucky person than me who worries less about everything and everyone than I do. Science is telling me to be more relaxed, and who am I to defy science!

  10. This is such an interesting post on how stress is related to weight gain. I always wondered why my brother did not gain weight as much as I do while he eats much more than I do. I am sure metabolism may be one of the factors that influenced weight gain but this post made me think about how much stress I get everyday.

    I looked up and found one article that explained how stress makes one gain weight. It said that stress makes our body to release poisonous substances that produces waste products inside our blood system that will disrupt the flow of the blood. Thus, this will eventually decrease the rate of metabolism and bring about weight gain.

    I personally think I am a person who experience stress easily and now I think maybe it is affecting my weight and my health. This post is awesome. I think I should think more positively and bring about change in my mental health and my physical health.

  11. This is alarming to say the least .The reason being that the amount of individuals that suffer from depression has increased so much. The main reason for it being stress related.
    I find myself craving comfort food very often these days as I too am a first year student. The adapting process has been cause for much stress. The comfort of the food has very efficiently made the comfort of my jeans an unrealistic possibility.
    Being one of three females at home I couldn’t stress enough how wonderful it is knowing this research is being done. I’m sure I can count on a whole bunch of women who would join me on the sidelines cheering it on!

  12. This type of research is very important in our day and age. It is important because of the increase in obesity in countries. In my opinion stress levels have increased in recent times because of added pressures that have been placed in society. Obesity is occurring in a younger age group because of the increased levels of stress.

    Oxytocin has been seen to be the ‘happy hormone’. People with increased levels of stress will crave things that cause the release of oxytocin. Such things can be chocolate and other sugar rich substances. This causes an increase in the consumption of unhealthy and fattening foods.

    People who are stressed can come times feel like they never have enough time to do all the tasks that they need to do. This may cause them to neglect gym or other forms of exercise because they would rather be completing important tasks I’m that time. Excel case has been proven to reduce stress levels, so while keeping your body fit and healthy it also reduces stress and therefore reduces the need to consume fatty or sugary substances that would otherwise be the replacement for oxytocin that everyone needs once in a while.

  13. I agree with the study. I’ve also found that stress can lead to a slower metabolism and a lazier lifestyle. But then I believe that being over stressed can cause your metabolism to speed up due to the need of energy and this will then result in weight loss. So I’m not sure how stress can lead to being over weight and I believe that it would cause someone to be under weight.

  14. It is highly possible that stress that chronic stress can cause one to be fatter. Arccording to the information that I have, stress has numerous effects that in turn make people fat.
    Them being;
    1. It makes you hungry and crave sugar
    2. Reduces your ability to burn fat.
    3. Increases the rate at which you store fat
    4. Makes your cells less sensitive to insulin
    And many more…
    The rise of the cortisol levels that break down muscle tissue and increasing fat storage also predipose one to gain weight.

  15. This topic is of critical importance as recent surveys show that South Africa is becoming a fat nation. “Seventy percent of South African women are overweight or obese, many people are unfit and we are heading for a non-communicable disease pandemic.” We need to educate the people of S.A on the effects of chronic stress and how it makes foods make you fatter, so we can reduce and prevent obesity and the related illnesses.

  16. Stress plays a role in many lives and most of the time people don’t even realise they are stressed. This causes the person to act in a different way without realising or doing strange things they don’t often do. Food is one of many coping mechanisms used by many to help them cope through a stressful time, most call it ‘comfort food’.

    I do think it can develop into a health risk when the person does not know they are stressed and then just eat fast foods, cakes and many other types of food containing many calories and sugar. This escalates to many other problems such as depression, cholesterol, lack of exercise and slow heart beat.

    Many people that are stressed see food as way to block out their problems and for that moment while eating, they feel relaxed and it’s almost as though all their stress has disapeared. Because they want to feel this way of blocking out the stress, they keep eating.

    Therefore this blog creates a good awareness factor, proving to people that food is not actualy a way out of stress.

  17. Recent studies show that stress not only makes you pick up weight due to this stress – junk food pathway spoken about in the article however it also makes it difficult to lose weight. When stress becomes chronic and prolonged, the hypothalamus is activated and triggers the adrenal glands to release a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is normally released in a specific rhythm throughout the day. This broken cortisol rhythm causes havoc in your body, there are many effects with the primary effects being: making you hungry and crave sugar and reduces your ability to burn fat.

  18. true indeed because i have been through that and i still face similar challenbes but i feel im in control of my stress now by excercising and seeking help from proffessionals, Since you say its null and void to do that what do you suggest we do to decrease our stress levels and leave a better balanced life?

  19. Articles like this often help to shed some light on a rather controversial subject know as obesity and weight gain in general.

    Stress levels play an extremely important role in health related issues. When we look at weight gain, there is a lot of research that supports the fact that stress can lead to increased weight. This is due to a number of factors. As mentioned above, stress can cause a person to consume more junkfood in an attempt to increase serotonin levels, a “feel good” hormone.

    Another effect of stress is raising levels of cortisol secreted in the blood stream. Cortisol not olnly stimulates appetite, but also causes a raise in blood sugar levels. This causes excess glucose to be stored in the form of fat, leading to weight gain.
    Although several factors can influence one’s health and weight, it is important not to forget the most common one of all – stress. Individuals who question reasons for their weight gain can search for more information and guidelines towards better health online as well as other sources e.g. books.

    Here is a helpful link that provides a bit more information regarding the signs of high cortisol levels due to stress. http://lissarankin.com/10-signs-you-have-way-too-much-cortisol.

    I hope it helps =)

  20. Stress is usually a manageable part of our lives but it affects our health the most when we think we’re coping just fine with what we have to deal with. It causes negative changes to the body directly and indirectly.

    Your body is able to function in a way that notifies you when you are in danger by triggering its stress response . When the body detects what it perceives to be a threat, your hypothalamus overworks your adrenal glands to produce high levels of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol which increase your heart rate and blood pressure to help you survive whatever danger you may be faced with (for example,if you’re swimming near a shark,this will give you a burst of energy to aid you in evading the area). However, if it’s frequently activated by everyday stressors, it can cause cortisol overload,which is directly disruptive to many bodily functions that would work just fine in the absence of stress.

    The cortisol suppresses the immune system, slows down digestion, stimulates your appetite, and may interfere with your brain’s ability to detect when you’ve had enough food. This indirectly causes disruption in your body because you begin to eat unhealthily without being aware of it. The same is true when you eat more unhealthy foods to cope with the stress.

    I think that stress is as dangerous as research has been revealing lately because we reach daily stress levels that our bodies are only supposed to be detecting in the case of emergencies that require the quickest responses. When we are that stressed everyday, our bodies end up compromising on other functions just to cope with the constant stress.

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